A Sick Calf

As I mentioned in my last post, we recently had more cattle brought to us to take care of. One of the calves in this herd became sick and needed to be treated. Since we do not have a working facility anywhere close to where the herd is grazing, it was much better for the calf to rope and doctor him in the field.

Scott lost his hat almost immediately so he is without his cowboy hat in most of these pictures.

Cutter (the horse) was a little out of practice so it took him just a couple minutes to put Scott in the right place so that he could rope the calf. Once Cutter got him to where he needed to be Scott quickly roped the calf.

Scott jumped off of Cutter and hurried to tie the calf’s legs. As soon as the legs are tied, the rope can be taken off the calf’s neck. The goal of all of this is to have as little stress on the animal as possible so that it can recover quickly; so we worked quietly but quickly. The kids and I were on the John Deere Gator with the medicine so as soon as the calf was caught and secured we hurried to deliver the medicine.

Scott carefully administered the two medicines that were prescribed by our vet. Then the calf’s legs were untied so that he could get up.

The calf got up and ran back to his mama and the rest of the herd. After we had finished we walked/ drove through the entire herd to check them over closely. They were not the least bit spooked by us having roped and treated the calf.

Since then the calf has made a full recovery and is doing great. It is such a good feeling to be able to help the livestock when they are sick or hurt!